Enrichment of Indian wheat germplasm with stripe rust resistant genes

Stripe rust, is a major constraint to wheat production in the more than 12.8 m ha region of the Northern Hills and North Western Plains zones in India. The previously deployed resistance genes Yr9 and Yr27 are no longer effective. New sources of resistance (Yr5, Yr10, Yr15, Yr24) became available under the umbrella of an Indo-Australian collaborative project. A set of advanced backcross derivative lines out yielded the checks in preliminary evaluations and were promoted to station-level (16 lines) and national (5 lines) trials. A new cohort of resistance genes (Yr47, Yr51, Yr57) are now available and are being used in the breeding program. Resistance genes Yr17, Yr18, Yr31, Yr36, Yr40, Yr53, YrC591, and Yr70 are also being used. The recent progress in development of high yielding, stripe rust resistant lines will help to address future threats from stripe rust.